Announcing CraftStylish.com

You may be wondering where my creative energies have run off to lately, and  I’m pleased to finally announce part of the answer. Craft Stylish, a new website launched by the lovely people at Taunton Press. I’ve been posting over there, all about crochet, my other crafty love. Sometimes I wonder if anyone who reads this blog knows that I love to crochet, since I rarely post about it, but that’s just because it can be hard to make crochet exciting in a quick post.  I’ve actually found lots to post about at CS, and new cool crochet stuff continues to crop up the more I look for it. So far I’ve been writing lots of how-tos, tips, book reviews and roundups on cool crochet sites , projects, and designers. If you happen to know of anything that might be good for a future post, please feel free to drop me a line any time!

Here’s one of the photos from my Granny Square tutorial– my goal is to take close-up shots and clearly show my hands so you know what’s actually going on. Imagine me with my self timer, gorilla pod, akwardly dangling camera cord and yarn ends everywhere, doing everything half-bent over till my back starts to yell at me. What, you couldn’t tell from the photo? That’s good! I need a staff, I tell you!

Head on over and check out the site– there are lots of original posts on all things crafty, including beading, sewing, and embroidery. You can register and comment, too, and I’m told there’s more to come! What a nice way to pass the Friday.

Little Surprises

I met my friend for coffee this morning to give her this hat, a custom job she requested for her 2-year-old granddaughter. To be honest this hat was a bit of a pest, I must have ripped it out three times. Something about the nubby yarn (it’s easy to loose your stitches) and my intent focus on making it a certain circumference. I don’t really have a pattern for hats, and I make each one  according to what the yarn tells me (hah!), and this one finally said “start at the bottom!”.

I’ve begun to add lining bands to my hats. Of course that’s another step and another material and more time, so I had resisted doing it for a long time. But then the shop I sell at said that a lot of people had mentioned that they were sensitive to wool, so I decided it was worth a shot to see if it helped sales. I sold three out of four newly lined hats to my coworkers before they even made it to the shop. Question answered.

Now I love the lining bands, because they’re a little extra surprise inside that only the wearer knows about. Plus it’s always fun to pick out the fabric– the sweet giraffes on the inside of this hat are definitely my favorite part.

And if you’re worried, as I was, that it’s too late in the season for hats, don’t fret– I’ve been informed it’ll snow here  until June. The weather’s actually been really nice  and sunny lately. It is good to see grass again.

New Issue: Crochet Today

As promised, here it is: my blatantly self promotional post. Just to prove I’ve been working on some worky type things. Here are two little projects of mine from the new March/April issue of Crochet Today.

    

The crafty cuffs and spiral change purse are mine. They’re fun and quick, let me tell you. I think I started these shortly after I moved here– I was still trying to get my head on straight at the time. 

   

This issue has some really pretty home projects. This vintage runner redux is totally my speed (love to crochet those lace patterns in a larger scale….even if I’m not a table runner kind of girl), and I looove the color wheel pillow. As in, one day, when I have time again, I might even make it. 

And did you know that Crochet Today also has podcasts? I vaguely remember the staff working on one while I was still around in NYC, but then I read about them on Crochet By Faye and had an “ooooooh….yeaaaaah” moment of recollection. I proceeded to dork out and watch every last one of them. I miss working with a bunch of fun ladies. Hi Brett and Sara!

I feel much better today. I was up and at ‘em this morning, then I rode the bus downtown for my pottery class. I’m pretty excited about some pieces I made from molds last week. They have doily imprints and are painted to look sort of like old pyrex casserole dishes. I only have 2 more weeks of the class…. and then I’ll be posting some results. I think I’ll go in tomorrow and take one last shot on the wheel. The wheel is so different from handbuilding- it’s all about relinquishing control for me. Sometimes I end up with something pretty, other times, a pile of mud. Good practice for life, I say.

100th Post

This is officially my 100th post. Woo-hoo! I figured I should do something to celebrate with y’all. I really appreciate all of your comments. Although I don’t respond to each one, I do read them and they really make my day– I hope you know that.

As a present to you, dear readers, I’m giving away one Crocheted Hat gift certificate and one Button Necklace gift certificate to my etsy shop. The winner can pick anything  they like  from the current stock–there’s still a bunch of cute stuff in there. Just leave a comment on this post by Friday at Midnight mountain time (that’s 2 am NY time) and I’ll randomly generate the winners! Yay! If you like, you can say which thing you’d prefer, in case it randomly works out that you can have your cake (hat) and eat it too.

Also- I finally joined Ravelry. I’m still finding my way around and haven’t uploaded many projects, but I’m over there as Lindamade, so feel free to add me.

 

And, for photo goodness, here’s my finished wonky recycled bathmat. I love it! (Full photo here for scale.)

Weekend Recycling

This was the weekend where we tackled the scary closet/pantry. It holds six trash bins for plastic, glass, aluminum cans, magazines, cardboard and newspaper. I set it up when I got here because after recycling for five years, it’s in my blood! Unfortunately there’s no curbside recycling here, so we save it up and take it to the huge bins, and then I walk my white paper recycling to work– because the college is the only place that recycles white paper. In fact, I’m not sure the glass even has a place to be recycled yet, but they are saving it just in case.

Anyway, after sorting a couple months worth of refuse, I got to thinking about the bag of clothes I had stashed in the corner to give away. In some ways, it’s hard to part with them because they’re just a tad too small now. Instead, I decided to combine them with the scraps I save from each project and start my own rag rug. Specifically, it’s going to be a bathmat, to replace our icky brown one. It is using up a lot of fabric– when I took this photo I’d used two or three good sized balls of scrap strips (I save them when I square off my quilt blocks or have extra bias tape, etc), a jersey dress (the orange), and the remainders from my refashioned tees. I found one more old shirt hiding in the bin and a couple pieces of fabric I’m not enamored with, and proceeded to tear them up.

 

Once I crochet those things in, the rug should be a pretty good size. And now I know I have a use for all of the scraps I hoard like crazy, which makes me feel better about keeping them. I think I’m going to cruise my closet again, too…. and be honest about what I’m really wearing, and what’s just taking up space.
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In other news, tonight I am (hopefully, assuming my machine has arrived) going to my first class at the Bernina store. Eeeee.

Great Horned Owls

And now for something different.

Last night when Paul came home from the studio he asked me if I had heard the owls hooting. I was watching Mean Girls, so no, I hadn’t. We went outside to see if they were still there, tip-toeing over the ice patches so as not to scare them.

 

Photo from the Hogle Zoo Website.

There were two of these beauties, each on top of a telephone pole, about 2 poles apart. They kept calling and responding, and I could see their white-patched throats. I heard owls growing up in Texas, but was never able to see them so close. I guess I’ll have to go outside at half past midnight more often!

Now I might have to make up some cute owls (like these and these).

Deep Sea Diving

This weekend I got to work on a hat/cowl/harf or whatever you want to call it. I’ve been thinking about making it for a long time. It started with this hat (now in the collection of Mrs. Loveforever)  and continued in an uncompleted crochet form made from a less wooly yarn. I never finished it, because I wanted to knit it. It is cold here. Cold! Today the wind chill was 5 degrees and I’m the only one walking around in a knee length coat. In my defense, I walk to work while it’s still dark outside, and everyone else is crazy. It’s cold.

 

So here’s what I came up with. A funny looking little cowl. I think it looks completely silly and I love it! I was wishing I had a snorkel when I took these photos, so imagine a snorkel and some hand drawn bubbles for effect.

I took it for a test run this morning and it kept my ears and face so warm! In all honesty, 5 degrees isn’t even that bad, but when it gets into the negatives, it hurts to breathe. I think this will help. I am so proud of myself because I made up the pattern myself, which required casting off and casting on again. That part I totally winged, and it worked.

I’m actually jumping in to designing my first knit hat pattern soon. The one thing I still need to figure out is how not to make the stripes step (I have the same problem as Betz White, it appears). If any of you know of a good tutorial, or just want to explain it to me in the comments, it’d be much appreciated.

Yay for Luggage + Shop Sneak Peek

Yay, my luggage came home at 7:30 this morning, with all the contents safe and sound. 

Once I get a chance to take some good photos, I’ll be adding three more cake hats to my etsy shop. These three are special because they flew to Edmonton (Canada) and back just to be with you. Fun. I put the finishing pom-poms on this morning.

 

I added a few new button necklaces last night, in case you’re interested. I sold one to my high school history teacher while at a Christmas Eve party– that was pretty cool. She also owns the first (and only) painting I ever sold.

Crochet Today Holiday 2007

I was very excited when my issue of Crochet Today arrived in the mailbox–one of my projects, the flowering necklace, made the cover! Yay!

   

  

I also contributed this retro boy hat which I really ended up liking. I think I worked the stripes a zillion times to get just the right combination. It’s made with Red Heart Soft, which was actually pretty nice to work with and comes in a lot of colors– good to know if you have a lot of giftmaking on your list.

In other news, I signed up for two knitting classes in town so that I can learn to knit hats- one is a chunky earflap hat, and one is in the round. I’m mosty interested in the in-the-round one, but I signed up with a friend and we could both use a refresher.  There weren’t a ton of crochet classes on offer (which maybe I can fix), although at the competing yarn shop, there are. They’re so inexpensive that I just might have to sign up for all of them.

Patchwork Swap CLOSED. plus Etsy Update

For those of you wondering if there is still room in the patchwork swap, yes, there is but you MUST send me an email to be considered “on the list.” So, match your comments with an email, please. Sorry, but all the spots are filled!!

 In other news, I updated my etsy shop today. There’s lots of stuff in there… I should probably stop crocheting now. Hah!

Today I really missed living in New York. I was in the middle of making baked mac and cheese and realized there was no milk. It used to be so easy to run across the street if I forgot an ingredient. Sigh. It’s weird to think that the whole city goes on without me, never skipping a beat.